USR says Active still part of distribution line-up

Active Distribution remains as distributor for USR for Middle East region

US Robotics has confirmed that Active Distribution will continue to sell its products in the Middle East and hasn't been dropped from its distribution line-up as it had earlier indicated.

The networking vendor has blamed internal "mis-communication" for the confusion after initially stating that BDL would serve as its sole distributor for the region going forward.

Both BDL and Active will provide product and support to the market, as well as serving as the main contact for the reseller channel after USR recently closed its Middle East operation.

Parvez Ahmed, managing director at Active Distribution, said: "There was a communication gap between the USR local team and Europe regarding Active's role or intention to continue, but that has been clarified now. We are very much behind US Robotics and want to continue with our presence and growing the business."

US Robotics' distribution line-up has halved in number since the turn of the year. Back in February it broke up with Aptec and last week the company confirmed a parting of ways with Almasa. Almasa has since claimed it engineered the split.

News that BDL and Active will serve as USR's primary representatives in the region comes just weeks after the vendor shut its Dubai office, a decision that it says was taken on economic grounds.

"Each region has to achieve a set of targets and we were not achieving those targets," explained Tony Field, senior product manager at US Robotics. "Those targets are fairly hard and high because we are owned by a private equity company called Platinum Equity and they are fairly hard on the finance side. It is right for the long term, because if you are not generating enough profit you need to change things."